The Murmurings by Carly Anne West (review)

Living under the shadow of her sister Nell’s alleged mental illness and suicide, Sophie imagines that everyone is waiting for her to lose her mind as well. The problem is that she seems to be doing just that—that is, she hears the same kinds of insistent but unclear vocalizations that her sister heard, and she sees glimpses of wavering beings in mirrors and darkened windows. She keeps all this to herself, though, and tries as best she can to appear normal. That’s harder when Evan, a new boy in school, takes an interest and begins asking her out. Oddly, he seems connected to the place where her sister’s body was found, and as they learn to trust each other, he reveals that he is searching for his cousin, who has been suffering the same symptoms as Nell. As they piece together clues about what actually happened to her sister, Sophie unwisely decides to make a secret visit the clinic where Nell was being treated; there she is captured by the doctor, who is performing experiments on patients like Sophie and Nell for his own gruesome purposes. West pulls together a lot of familiar genre elements—the heroine’s bad choices, the mad doctor and his evil assistant, and the one perfect boy who understands it all—in support of an enjoyable outing with some genuine originality in the premise and the details. Horror fans, especially those chilled by that age-old literary trope of helpless confinement in a mental institution, will find this satisfyingly disturbing. Romance fans will appreciate the relationship with good-guy Evan, a hero who values not only his girlfriend but also his lost cousin, and mystery lovers will appreciate the subtle clues available to alert readers.